The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for affecting the cornering performance off a motor vehicle. The invention also relates to a motor vehicle with such an apparatus.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Motor vehicles with active suspension system and/or stabilizers are known as Active Body Control (ABC), wherein their controllable suspension characteristics enable a specific compensation of pitch and roll movements. Typically, the vertical position of each wheel can be electro-hydraulically adjusted. In this way, the driving characteristics of a motor vehicle can be improved, in particular when driving along turns, for example in that the motor vehicle actively leans into the turn.
Disadvantageously, roll movements when negotiating turns typically cause feedback for the cornering performance of the motor vehicle. In particular, with active rolling, the axles of the motor vehicle are operated at an unfavorable operating point, causing the motor vehicle to steer into the turn when cornering, which must typically be compensated by a manual steering movement from the vehicle operator.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to obviate prior art shortcomings and to provide an improved method and an apparatus, which can improve the driving comfort for the occupants of the motor vehicle and which leads to a more natural steering characteristic of the motor vehicle in turns.